2012 Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

For the fifth time in six races, McLaren were the quickest team in the pits.

Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1

Stint 2

Stint 3

Lewis Hamilton

Medium (23)

Hard (30)

Jenson Button

Medium (22)

Hard (10)

Felipe Massa

Medium (19)

Hard (34)

Michael Schumacher

Medium (15)

Hard (22)

Hard (16)

Sebastian Vettel

Medium (20)

Hard (27)

Nico Rosberg

Medium (14)

Hard (24)

Hard (15)

Kimi Raikkonen

Medium (17)

Hard (36)

Kamui Kobayashi

Medium (20)

Hard (33)

Paul di Resta

Medium (21)

Hard (32)

Fernando Alonso

Medium (20)

Hard (33)

Mark Webber

Medium (21)

Hard (30)

Sergio Perez

Hard (29)

Medium (24)

Bruno Senna

Medium (24)

Hard (29)

Daniel Ricciardo

Medium (24)

Hard (29)

Jerome d’Ambrosio

Hard (27)

Medium (26)

Jean-Eric Vergne

Medium (8)

Heikki Kovalainen

Medium (17)

Hard (22)

Medium (13)

Vitaly Petrov

Medium (19)

Hard (21)

Medium (12)

Timo Glock

Medium (7)

Hard (25)

Hard (20)

Charles Pic

Medium (18)

Hard (17)

Hard (17)

Narain Karthikeyan

Medium (23)

Hard (29)

Pastor Maldonado

Hard (13)

Medium (22)

Medium (18)

Pedro de la Rosa

Medium (22)

Hard (30)

Nico Hulkenberg

Hard (27)

Medium (23)

One-stop strategies were the order of the day for most teams. Mercedes ran two-stop strategies for both their drivers, who were the quickest cars on the track at the end of the race.

Only two other drivers mimicked Sergio Perez’s successful strategy of starting on the hard tyres and making a single stop for mediums.

Nico Hulkenberg did and ran as high as eighth at one stage. He was in contention for a point but retired when his brake pedal went long.

The other driver to do so was Lotus substitute Jerome D’Ambrosio, who was the last of the midfielders.

Italian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Driver

Team

Pit stop time

Gap

On lap

1

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren

20.736

23

2

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

21.515

0.779

20

3

Mark Webber

Red Bull

21.556

0.820

21

4

Daniel Ricciardo

Toro Rosso

21.720

0.984

24

5

Kimi Raikkonen

Lotus

21.730

0.994

17

6

Pastor Maldonado

Williams

21.814

1.078

35

7

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

21.854

1.118

38

8

Heikki Kovalainen

Caterham

21.910

1.174

39

9

Jerome d’Ambrosio

Lotus

21.962

1.226

27

10

Charles Pic

Marussia

22.046

1.310

35

11

Felipe Massa

Ferrari

22.161

1.425

19

12

Vitaly Petrov

Caterham

22.182

1.446

19

13

Paul di Resta

Force India

22.190

1.454

21

14

Michael Schumacher

Mercedes

22.247

1.511

15

15

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull

22.303

1.567

20

16

Michael Schumacher

Mercedes

22.310

1.574

37

17

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

22.346

1.610

14

18

Sergio Perez

Sauber

22.472

1.736

29

19

Timo Glock

Marussia

22.581

1.845

32

20

Heikki Kovalainen

Caterham

22.737

2.001

17

21

Nico Hulkenberg

Force India

22.746

2.010

27

22

Vitaly Petrov

Caterham

22.811

2.075

40

23

Kamui Kobayashi

Sauber

22.874

2.138

20

24

Pastor Maldonado

Williams

22.970

2.234

13

25

Bruno Senna

Williams

22.985

2.249

24

26

Jenson Button

McLaren

23.375

2.639

22

27

Pedro de la Rosa

HRT

23.488

2.752

22

28

Charles Pic

Marussia

24.039

3.303

18

29

Timo Glock

Marussia

28.747

8.011

7

30

Narain Karthikeyan

HRT

31.745

11.009

23

Although Lewis Hamilton’s pit stop was the quickest of the weekend, Jenson Button’s did not go anything like as well. A problem at the front-right kept him in the pits for 2.6s more than his team mate.

6 comments on “2012 Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

Mclaren’s first half of 2012 included some awful pitstops. recently they have consistently been sub 3 seconds.
I wonder in hindsight whether it would have been better if all their stops were 4 seconds exactly. maybe they’d have more points right now…

With lots of hindsight, I wonder if Ferrari considered sending Alonso out on hard tyres in Q3, once they knew he had the roll-bar problem? Plenty of reasons not to (tyre wear, getting stuck in traffic early on etc) but he might have done better on the same strategy as Perez.

Not sending him out at all (to give him a choice of tyres at the start) was never an option – not on Saturday at Monza…

A shame that the FIA dont publish the stationairy times of the pit stops, although I guess that is then opened to debate. An FOM graphic claimed that a stop was 2.6 in Silverstone, Sam Michael of Mclaren reckoned the boys got it done in 2.1 seconds (is that even possible!? o.O)

@jamesf1 I guess so. The only way FOM can measure it is by how long the car is stationary. If you allow for a few tenths for the pit guys to react to Hamilton being parked and a tenth or two for him to react to the lollipop man it is perfectly feasible.